It Ends Tonight
By: TheFifthCharmedOne
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Merlin.
Summary: "It ends tonight because tomorrow everything will change." Gwen turned to Arthur and smiled sadly. "You're right. Tomorrow, Camelot will have a new queen. One that's worthy of her title." [New summary!] [Arthur/Hermione] Crossover of Harry Potter and BBC's Merlin. Takes place during Hermione's seventh year, post-war, and between seasons 4&5.
-X-X-X-
Chapter Eight:
Kiss of Death
"Get away from him!" Without thinking, Merlin shot forward and threw his arms up, acting as a human shield. Arthur was lying on the ground, scarily quiet. As soon as Merlin came in contact with the Dementor's Kiss, he recalled everything he forced himself to never think about.
"No! Will!" Will took the arrow meant for Arthur, and protected Merlin with his dying breath.
"Freya!" He brought her to the lake, the one she had dreamt of, and he had to send her away. Her. The only girl he had ever loved.
"Father!" They had barely gotten to know each other, barely been father and son for more than a few hours when he was struck down.
He recalled their deaths in vivid clarity, theirs, and all of the others he had failed to protect. It had haunted him for a long time to see their faces and know that they had died because of him. Will had been protecting him from discovery, Freya had been the victim of a curse and was trying to escape when Arthur wounded her, and his father had been protecting him from Cenred's men.
"BÁSNE FEORHHYRDE!" A new voice shouted. A gust of wind knocked the creature away, and Merlin gasped for air, falling to the ground beside Arthur. "Merlin! Merlin!" Hermione's face went in and out of focus. "Arthur! Arthur!" she alternated between them, trying to rouse one or both. "Someone help!"
The guards of the outer walls heard her cries and sounded the alarm. That was the last thing that Merlin heard before he lost consciousness.
Slowly, Merlin came too on his own bed, wincing at the pain that had curled around his brain like a contented dog.
"Arthur." he whispered, getting to his feet. His vision swam briefly, but he shook it off. Going into the main chamber, he discovered that Arthur was lying on the table, still unconscious. Gwen was by his side, holding his hand. Hermione stood toward the corner, trying to give the couple some privacy. "Hermione." Merlin said, and she looked up. Gwen acknowledged him with a nod, and Merlin went toward the queen's servant. "How long has it been?"
"Only a few hours. He should wake up soon." Hermione took a small chocolate bar from her apron and presented it to him. She must have gotten it from the kitchen. "It helps." she said as an explanation, and Merlin took the sweet.
"Was that a Dementor, then?" Merlin asked in a hushed tone, biting into his chocolate. As soon as the sweet met his tongue, his headache began to lift. He would have to speak to Gaius about this in the future.
"Yes. This is the first time it's directly attacked." Hermione answered. "Are you all right?"
"I've got a splitting headache, but otherwise, yeah."
"It's probably because you weren't exposed for very long. Too long, and the creature sucks out your soul." Merlin grimaced, and Hermione nodded toward Arthur and Guinevere. "Seems not even a petty fight could keep her away."
"Gwen's loved Arthur for quite a long time - before they were married, they were forced apart more than once. She's always been resilient."
"It makes her a great queen." Hermione said respectfully. She stepped forward. "My lady," she addressed the queen. "Perhaps you should go rest. Merlin and I will stay with him." Gwen looked hesitant.
"You need to rest." Hermione told her. "I'll be along in a while to assist you."
"I can manage." Gwen said softly. "Watch over him."
"I will."
Hermione and Merlin sat beside Arthur, continuing their conversation.
"He is going to wake up, right?" Merlin asked.
"Yes, but it may take some time. The Dementors have been working on him for a long time. With everything you told me that's happened over the past year, it's likely that they saw his fight with Gwen as a chance to perform the Kiss."
"The Kiss?" Hermione shifted her weight uncomfortably.
"A Dementor's Kiss is a fate worse than death. The Dementor will latch itself to your face and suck your soul from your body, leaving you in as a husk of your former self. It's a terrible way to die."
"Sounds like it's right up Morgana's alley. She'll do anything to bring Arthur down, and the more he suffers, the happier she'll be."
Arthur groaned and slowly began to stir. He opened his eyes and then winced at the headache he undoubtedly had.
"What happened?" he asked.
"You were attacked by...a wild animal." Merlin blurted brilliantly.
"An animal?" Arthur asked dubiously. "How come only my head hurts?"
"You were caught off guard and fell against a rock, which knocked you out."
"Merlin, I'm the King. I don't get 'caught off guard'." Arthur reminded him, sounding as if the very idea appalled him.
"You had a lot on your mind." Merlin said back. "Or did you forget about your fight with Gwen?" he was still angry that the prat had made his friend cry. No one had the right.
"Oh. Guinevere." Arthur groaned, sitting up slowly."She's probably extremely angry with me."
"She was here until a few minutes ago; when Merlin and I persuaded her to get some rest." Hermione smiled lightly. "I think that in light of your brush with death, she's willing to forgive you."
Arthur breathed a sigh of relief. Hermione felt a twinge of jealousy in her chest. She had saved his life; but beyond that, she cared about his well-being. She was intelligent enough to realize what that could mean.
Blast it. She thought, casting a quick prayer heavenward. Blast it all.
Moonlight filled the small closet room. Merlin slept peacefully, turned away from the window. Hermione stared at the ceiling, sleep evading her. She rolled over in her spot on the floor, willing for not only sleep, but dreamless sleep.
I hope everything works out for Arthur and Gwen. They're destined for each other. She couldn't ignore the twinge in her chest this time, and she sat up, running a hand through her hair. It's wrong. I can't...like him. Not like that. He's a king that lives hundreds of years before my time! And he's married! I'm only meant to protect him. That's all. As soon as I guide him on the right path, Ginny and I are going home. It was strange how the more she tried to tell herself, the less true it sounded.
Giving up on sleep, decided to take a walk through the courtyard to calm her nerves.
Quietly getting to her feet so that she wouldn't wake Merlin, she carefully grabbed a cloak and slid her wand into her sleeve. Even though she knew some of Merlin's magic, she felt defenseless without her wand at her side.
Once she was out in the corridor, the crisp night air cascaded by her and she walked slowly, hoping to gather her thoughts and for drowsiness to come to her.
She came to the courtyard and found Arthur sitting on the stairs leading into the castle, his head in his hands. Carefully approaching him, he looked up when she sat down.
"Hermione." he greeted roughly.
"My Lord," As soon as she said it, Arthur shuddered. "You should be resting."
"Call me Arthur. Please." he said softly. Hermione hesitated, but was curious to the king's troubles.
"A-Arthur." To Hermione, it felt wrong to call him by his first name. It was too personal for her to say - her, a simple servant to her reigning sovereign. Whether she was destined to protect him or not, she had to keep up appearances.
Arthur sighed deeply.
"The only people that call me by my first name anymore are Guinevere and Merlin. To everyone else, I'm 'Sire', or 'my Lord'."
"You're the king - would you rather they didn't treat you with respect?"
"Of course not." Arthur murmured. "But I'm more than just their king. I want them to think of me as their friend too." his head sank, and so did Hermione's heart. He was so vulnerable this way, and it tugged at something inside of her. "I just...I'm..." he sighed again. "I'm lost." he said, so quietly she almost didn't hear him. "I'm not sure what to do."
"About what?" Hermione asked him gently.
"Everything!" Arthur yelled loudly. "Nothing is as it should be. Morgana's against me, my father is dead...I'm not ready to be a king, Hermione. The attack today...there's no way it was a wild animal. It was some sort of creature. I know it. I remembered all of my worst experiences, especially..." he paused, his throat catching. "Especially when my father died. I felt as though I would...that I would never be happy again."
Hermione gently put her hand over his. His eyes flicked to her hand, but otherwise he showed no recognition of the comforting gesture. Instead, he lifted his head up when Hermione spoke.
"I once read that some men are born great, some men achieve greatness..." she looked into his eyes. "And some have greatness thrust upon them. I think you fall into the third category. You were born a prince, yet your life was fraught with so much change that when your father died, you were forced to grow up just a little bit too fast."
She looked down at their clasped hands, blushed lightly and tried to pull away. He held fast, which surprised her. "You have the faith of your people, your queen, your servant, your oldest mentor, and me. We believe in you, Arthur."
"I don't deserve it." Arthur broke their stare and looked out at the empty courtyard.
"I may not have been a witness to everything, but I've heard stories." Hermione took a moment to consider her words. "You deserve all the respect, faith, and trust that your people have given you. You are fated to be a great ruler. You need to believe that." she stopped for a minute. "As for the creature, I wouldn't know. Have you come across magical creatures before?"
"Many times. A dragon once attacked Camelot, nearly destroyed it." Hermione made a mental note to ask Merlin about that.
Over their heads, a Dementor floated ominously, looking for an opening. It could only sense positivity from both of them, which perplexed the creature.
They were silent for a few moments, before Arthur met her gaze once again.
"You know, you are quite beautiful, Hermione." She could see the honesty in his eyes, and her heart skipped a beat. The first thought that crossed her mind was glee - he thought she was beautiful! - but that was quickly overshadowed by her loyalty to Gwen.
"Thank you, sire. But that's not something you should be telling your wife's maidservant."
"Even if it's true?"
"You're rather bold." She chuckled out nervously, deciding that her traitorous heart should not be hammering because of the way he was looking at her. "Goodnight, my Lord."
"I thought we already established that you can call me Arthur."
"My Lord." Hermione insisted.
She managed to break his hold on her hands and she left with a huff, almost forgetting to curtsy. His blue eyes followed her, and she didn't have to see them to know that he was watching. Once she was inside the castle and away from his gaze, she leaned against the wall, willing her legs to work and her heart to slow down.
"He complimented you?" Ginny asked that morning before training. "What did he say?"
"He..." Hermione couldn't keep herself from blushing. "He told me I was beautiful."
Ginny uncharacteristically squealed. "Oh shut up! It's not like it means anything! In case you forgot, he's married!"
"Talking about Arthur?" Merlin inquired, coming out of his room.
"He and Hermione met up last night. He told her she was beautiful." Ginny said, and Merlin's eyes went comically wide. "What?"
"Please not again," Merlin muttered, shaking his head. "It's happened three times before!"
"What has?"
"He's been enchanted! It's obvious!" Merlin flipped through some of Gaius's books, and Hermione frowned.
"Merlin," she stated calmly. "Are you saying that I enchanted the king? When I know full and well that he is in love with and married to Queen Guinevere?" Merlin looked up and found her staring at him contemptuously. It took him a minute, but he started to laugh nervously. "Surely you can't think that little of me."
"I don't!" Merlin protested. "It's just that...he's never had real feelings for anyone other than Gwen..."
"Just because he complimented me doesn't mean he has feelings for me." Hermione reminded him.
"Actually, it does." Merlin said. "You're from a different time, Hermione. I don't know how it is in the future, but in this time, when a man compliments a woman it usually means he feels something for her."
"Oh please." Hermione said, trying to be rational. "He can't have feelings for me, just like I can't have feelings for him!" She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself. She frowned, while Ginny smirked imperiously. "Don't you have training to get to?" she snapped at the Weasley girl.
The redhead sighed heavily and grabbed her sword and helmet.
"We'll talk about this later." she said, and Hermione groaned internally.
After Ginny left, Hermione turned to Merlin.
"Arthur said that a dragon once attacked Camelot. What happened?"
Merlin sighed.
"You know that magic is outlawed in Camelot. Anyone caught using it will be sentenced to death, especially if they're caught doing something to the royal family, because that would be seen as high treason. As you know, I'm a warlock. I've been protecting Arthur for a long time now. Every time something happened, I went down in to the deep recesses of Camelot, where Uther's greatest trophy was kept prisoner."
"A dragon." Hermione concluded. Merlin nodded.
"The last of his kind." Merlin looked down, a strange look crossing his face. "Kilgharrah was the one who told me about my destiny, and for the first two years after that, I went to him for advice. I didn't always listen and I paid the price. In fact, he was the first one to tell me that Morgana was evil; which I didn't want to believe it at first. After a while, he started asking me to free him. I stalled for a long time, we fought a lot, but eventually, after I learned I was a Dragonlord, I freed him. He turned on Camelot, hoping to destroy Uther for the decades of imprisonment. I convinced him to leave. Arthur believes the dragon is dead."
By now, they were sitting across from each other at Gaius's worktable, which was still set up as a bed for Arthur.
"What's a Dragonlord?"
"It's a form of warlock, a magic that is passed from father to son. There used to be a lot of them, until the Great Purge. Uther wiped all of them out but one. My father, Balinor. He was forced to flee, and came to Ealdor. He lived with my mother for a while, but when Uther discovered him, he left again." Tears burned behind Merlin's eyes. "I barely knew him. My mother never talked about him, and I never asked. Gaius was the one to tell me while the city was under siege. We, Arthur and I, went searching for him to persuade him to stop Kilgharrah from destroying Camelot. He eventually agreed, but..." Merlin felt the tears run down his face, and he looked down at his hands.
Hermione reached forward and held his hands, and he looked up at her.
"You can rest easy. Your father didn't die in vain. There are dragons where I come from - a lot of them, and there are dragon tamers that contain them."
Merlin smiled through his tears.
"That's good to know." he said. "Thank you."
A/N: Lots more to come! Hope you guys enjoyed this!
Note: I am watching Merlin as I write this, and updating information according to the Merlin Wiki. Please forgive any mistakes, and also, review!
-Charmy
